Mermaid Stories From Scotland

The Blue Men of the Minch: This story tells of a group of mermaids or merfolk called the "Blue Men" who inhabited the treacherous waters of the Minch, a strait between the mainland of Scotland and the Outer Hebrides. They were known to capsize boats, causing sailors to drown. The Blue Men were said to be tall and muscular, with blue-tinted skin and long seaweed-like hair. Some legends even claim that they wore blue or grey clothing made from the skin of seals. It was believed that they used their enchanting voices to lure unsuspecting sailors to their demise.

Transcript

In Scotland there is a race of mermen and they are known as Blue Men of the Moir and Moir is Scottish for the sea.

Now what makes them quite interesting is that they have this bluish-grey skin colour and other than that they look like humans with tails.

The Blue Men of the Moir are tricksters.

They would go to the sailors and ask them questions and usually the sailors did not have the answer and when they did not know how to answer,

The mermen would wreck their ships and track the sailors to their depths.

The Blue Men of the Moir are told to live in the Minch Channel,

Which is in the north coast of Scotland and there are lots of sites from the sailors that they have seen the Blue Men of the Moir close to the Shiat Islands.

The Shiat Island means a magical island and the Blue Men are believed to be these magical spirits who create turbulent tides.

Trúðnán fyrgorma,

It is a body of water between Shiat Islands and the Isle of Lewis and that means the stream of the Blue Men.

There is another race of mermaids but they live next to the Orkney Islands in the north of Scotland and they are known as the Finnfolk.

The Finnfolk live in a magical land underwater called Finnfolkahem.

Hem means home in Swedish.

A lot of the Scottish story tradition have elements from Scandinavia because of the Vikings.

So I think the story of Finnfolk probably came from somewhere from Scandinavia at some point or at least it has many elements from Norse mythology and folktales.

And the Finnfolk,

They usually live quite peacefully in Finnfolkahem,

But sometimes they steal boats and come on shore.

They take sailors and little children and they take them to Finnfolkahem and make them their slaves.

Another very friendly mermaid species.

Finnfolk,

They apparently liked silver.

So if you ever come across a Finnfolk merman or mermaid,

They might not want you,

They might want your silver jewellery.